Fuzzy OOP

Abstract

We display a novel perspective of novice OOP difficulties. In a thorough study of 120 undergraduates, in their first OOP course, we noticed a variety of misconceptions and difficulties with a wide range of basic terms and notions. Careful analysis revealed a recurring phenomenon, of fuzzy OOP conceptions, which derive from expansion and reduction of basic term features. Novices tended to expand and/or reduce properties not only of terms such as "class" and "object", but also of terms such as "static", "access", and "instance". Particular misconceptions were of the forms: "One vs. Many". We display a detailed categorization of our findings, in an ordered hierarchical structure, and discuss its cognitive characteristics.